In a recent survey by skyscanner.net, Miera iela, Riga, topped the list of the most hipster neighbourhoods in the world. Miera iela (or Peace Street) beat off competition from Williamsburg in New York, Kreuzberg in Berlin and Mission District in San Francisco. Here’s how it looks on the latvia.eu website:
I posted the survey on the Expat Eye Facebook page and got mixed reactions:
“Miera Iela is ok, but better than Kreuzberg?! No way! Miera needs more of an ethnic and social mix and better bars to get even close.”
“More hipster than Kreuzberg? I don’t think so… (but it’s nice that others do).”
“I want to move… NOW!”
I’d been down Miera Iela a bit on the 11 tram and I didn’t remember anything particularly remarkable about it. So, on Sunday afternoon I decided to take a stroll down that direction and check it out for myself. But first, having only a vague notion of what actually constitutes a hipster, I turned to my old friend, the Oxford Dictionary.
Hipster: A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.
Hmm. Still a little unsure as to how a hipster differs from a pretentious wanker, off I went.
Admittedly, it wasn’t the best day for a little adventure:
1. It was around 8 degrees;
2. There was an Irish drizzle falling;
3. It was Sunday.
Still, I was in high spirits as I approached Miera iela and entered hipster heaven. My first reaction was ‘hmm’.
First building on Miera
I carried on walking, looking in shop windows as I went. First up was a ‘how to look like a Latvian hooker’ lingerie shop.
Limbless Latvian hooker – with some spare legs.
It was a dull day, as I’ve mentioned, which didn’t really do much for the buildings, but there are some nice ones.
A bit pink but, well, it is Riga.
The problem with Riga is that for every pretty building you come across, there are another ten jaded old wrecks that look like they’re about to fall apart at any second. It pays to have a fertile imagination as you’re always looking at what could be, rather than what actually is.
They could be beautiful buildings
At this point, I became aware that I hadn’t really seen anyone resembling my mental picture of a hipster, so I started to focus on the people around me.
Are you a hipster?
Are you hipsters??
I still wasn’t sure. They looked a bit ‘mainstream’ for my liking.
I kept walking and came to the Laima factory and museum. For those of you who don’t know, Laima is the most famous Latvian confectionery company.
The original factory is nothing much to look at, but the museum has recently been renovated – in fact, it’s only been open to the public since January. Good old EU funding strikes again…
Are you hipsters?
By now, I was almost at the end of Miera and feeling decidedly underwhelmed. Luckily, a classic example of Latvian health and safety lifted my mood…
Yes, it’s a man in an old oil drum, swinging about randomly with a chainsaw in his hands.
(Apologies to the Latvians for any distress caused by the mean old man hurting the innocent tree.)
Waiting for the metal cable to snap resulting in a chainsaw massacre gave me a bit of an appetite, so I started looking for a likely café. I liked the look of ‘Tea and Books’ because, well, I like tea and books. Unfortunately, even though the sign said 10am to 10pm, the door was locked. I fear they may have seen me lurking outside with my camera and sneakily turned the key.
Instead, I ended up in Dad, which turned out to be absolutely lovely – a light airy front room and a slightly more arty-farty back room, with an eclectic mix of furniture and paintings, and even a piano.
I walked up to the counter and eyed the cakes. Spying something that looked like a lemon meringue pie, I asked the girl in Latvian ‘Is that lemon?’ It might seem like a rather stupid question but I’ve had some unpleasant surprises with things that looked like lemon meringue pie in the past. She instantly switched to English, which I’ve given up fighting, and confirmed that it was. I took a seat in the comfiest armchair in the world and waited.
Even though I thought it was a little bit pricey at €5, the presentation was top-notch and the cake was to die for. I took out my book and tried to look hipster-ish as I wolfed it down. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite fast enough. I’d been saving the orange slice as a sort of second dessert, but the waitress swooped in and took the plate away as soon as I’d finished the cake. Oh well.
One more test – the bathroom. I was relieved to see that it was not decorated in piss, as is the standard here. There were some rather strange adornments that took up half the available space though.
Maybe the hipsters like it?
However, the ultimate surprise was waiting for me as I left. The waitress smiled at me. Actually smiled. With teeth. Amazing.
So how did I rate Miera iela? To be honest, I find it hard to see how it topped some of the other destinations on the list. Still, it’s an enjoyable enough stroll and I’m sure it’s a lot livelier in the summer.
I’m getting a bit suspicious though – so far Latvia’s bagged ‘Most Beautiful Country’, ‘Most Beautiful Women’ and ‘Most Hipster Neighbourhood’. Are Latvians the only ones who vote in these things??
You can see the full list of hipster neighbourhoods here.
Expat Eye on Latvia 
It was a big pleasure to meet you and your friend today!
I have been thinking of the exact same thing regarding this street. And laughed a lot when you pondered upon who was hipster of those you saw – indeed. (Although just like you I also think it’s really pretentious).
Maybe bit bit more eccentric than a usual neighbourhood but not much. I sometimes go to 9K1 nams (a place for concerts) and next to it is a hipster bar called Piens, they are very hipster (they are so hipster though so I manage to go there only when there are some specific rap events), and they are about the only “hipster” places I know from that area. Trufixkru and such guys ride their fixie bikes on the yard of those houses. Still, not enough to make it some hipster heaven.
I wonder what inhonesty has been behind that Skyscanner thing.
Yeah, me too – the whole thing is just bizarre! I used to like Piens but the last time I was there, it was full of posers and the atmosphere was not good. I won’t be going back. It was great to meet you too! Hope you made it to your lesson on time 😉
Pingback: A list of good reads | OneChicklette
Oh dear. I think I’m going to need to take a stroll over to Williamsburg soon and show you a real hipster neighborhood. (Though I will say that 5 euros is a deal compared to the prices in Williamsburg. The “hipper” a neighborhood is, it seems, the more expensive it is.)
How much would a cup of tea and a slice of cake cost there???
Are you sitting down? Probably $10 (that’s about 7.50 or 8 euros, I think). Being hip doesn’t come cheap. 🙂
So glad I’m not hip 😉
I live in Williamsburg and jokingly call it the Hipster Petting Zoo. Clearly we need to take Linda for a stroll. She will not have to ask “Are you a hipster?”
L, I’m entertained, as always!
My work here is done 😉
Absolutely. We’ll have to give her the official “Girls” tour. 😛 With a side trip to Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint of course…
Cafe Grumpy wouldn’t be out of place here 😉
Naturally!
Pingback: An open letter to delfi.lv | Expat Eye on Latvia
Go Latvia? Moscow has a whole hipster island actually, where a shi*t-ton of expats hang out (including yours truly). Tons of clubs and lounges and art galleries and media companies. Not my scene 🙂
Strange that there were no Russian cities on the list actually!
Decorated in piss. I laughed.
Mission accomplished 😉
Find Labieties and Piens (Aristida Briāna iela 9 near Miera).
Speaking about hipsters, there are even castes of hipsters http://www.cehs.lv/2012/04/hipsteru-kastas-jeb-kas-tu-esi/ ((humorously done) you can ask somebody to translate, if you’re digging into the topic);
How to spot a hipster – one already mentioned – lumberjack plaid, grannies glasses (is a must, non magnifying lenses will do), I-phone or black&white old phone (if can’t afford it and if you can’t afford it then must say I-phones are too mainstream), a beard, living in a communal flat, having some creative profession or be jobless for a while, wine. I hope it gave some insights. You must have seen a hipster may be just didn’t recognize.
Maybe 😉 I just don’t think I’m cool enough. I’ve heard mixed reports about that Labieties place. One guy I know raved about it, another said that it was run by a people-hating ignoramus – what’s your take?
They’ve got the tastiest beer (even the strong ones) and the coolest interior.
Certain places attract certain type of customers, partly it’s even unconscious process. It’s really hard to say who they hate. They dislike cheap and low quality beer, my answer would be.
OK, cool, thanks 😉 I’ll check it out.
I’m with you Linda. I see no hipsters hipstering in ironic hipster tshirts, librarian glasses and doc martins or whatever faux leather boots they wear these days.
Visit Coachella music festival for “hipsters”. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2313857/Jimmy-Kimmel-pranks-hipsters-Coachella-Festival-2013-VIDEO.html
Most things here are ‘faux’ 😉
I try to avoid places where there may be “hipsters,” if for no other reason than I think it’s a rather outdated, odd label (ya dig, man?) 🙂 Fuddy-duddy me was happy to see the Mission District in San Francisco on the list, although that’s probably a mixed blessing. I have friends who have lived in the Mission for years, in a communal-type artist “colony” in one of the old warehouses. It actually used to be a drab, industrial part of the city, with a large Hispanic population, mostly working-class or arty types. Now, a lot of “techies” have moved in and have radically changed the neighborhood. It’s more vibrant and fun with lots of odd shops and cafes and artist studios. That’s the upside. The downside is it has become far more expensive to live there and some established families are getting pushed out. If I wanted to live there, I don’t know if I could even afford a studio with shared bathroom in one of the warehouses 😉
Yeah, that’s the problem with these ‘cool’ lists – within a couple of years, the place is unlivable for most!
A friend of mine explained to me how hipsters are used in a real estate business: the owner of the property lets hipsters in an old, abandoned building (in a deserted region); hipsters make some cool, creative stuff (like Kaņepe on Skolas street), do a repair, a renovation for their café or for kind of alternative club, a place for bizarre bands to perform. They run the business for some years, gather people around the place, it becomes stylish to go there. When the place (or even the area) peaked the popularity they evict hipsters and sell the properties. Hipsters have doubled or tripled the price of the real estate (and most probably of the area); they have done the orderly jobs (and are sent to new slums).
Very cynical but I’m sure that’s exactly what happens! Thanks for the comment!
They tried that in NYC SOHO district and the 60’s & 70’s, where artists converted small clothing manufacturing buildings into studio/living lofts doing and paying for all the repairs and renovations themselves. Then once the landlords saw tons of people hanging out there and how well the tenants had fixed up the places, the landlords jumped the rent sky high in an attempt to force them out. The City passed a law named “The Loft Law” that stated (paraphrasing) if a tenant rehabilitated a space bring it up to “Code” and doing and/or paying for the work themselves, the landlord could only raise the rent a few percentage points every couple years. So, the improvements, and added traffic – read tourists looking for the Art Scene – raised the property values to a level that the landlords could not recoup the taxes from the original low, and locked, rents, thereby forcing the landlords to sell the properties to the tenants for a $1 to get out from under the taxes. And then several decades later the artists decided the scene was to crowded with tourists and $15 cups of cappuccino so they began selling the lofts to the financial bonus money types for huge amounts (we’re talking seven figures here making more money selling the loft than they ever made from the mostly pedestrian art), allowing them to move up to the country and open spaces. Then the new scene was DUMBO – or as we called it “SOHO” without a GAP store – and the process began over again, only this time the landlords were a little more savvy. I was the beneficiary of the Loft Laws in DUMBO and with a group in my loft building managed to drag the building owner through the courts for 7 years while the judge forbade him from collecting rents from us; so I effectively lived and worked in a 2,000 SqFt loft that I’d remodeled for 7 years rent free, and one subway stop from the East Village.
Actually the term hipster is kinda archaic and relates to an era in NYC, Paris, and West Berlin of young and middle aged artistic types living in cheap converted loft spaces drinking cheap coffee, and most importantly – creating. Most people I’ve seen who would call themselves “hip” are actually rich kids trying to look and act poor. I was an original settler and pioneer in the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area of NYC. It was the only place we could afford because the doctors, lawyers, and financial types who thought of themselves as “hip” made SOHO to expensive. Now they have found DUMBO and priced everybody out. Then Williamsberg became the hot spot where all the coffee shops and funky ethnic places are. Guess what? The bastards (and NY Times), of course, “discovered” it and it also has become unaffordable. I will definitely check out Meira iela today. BTW, I know you are Irish and we speak a different common language – but in the picture you have a Lemon Meringue PIE, not a CAKE.
Ha, I called it lemon meringue pie first, then switched 😉 Let me know what you think of Miera!
I actually rather enjoyed it, several quaint little coffee & tea shops. I stopped in the shop where you had your “cake” and you are right – very comfy sofas and chairs. Also while I was in there a group of young musicians were working on writing & scoring a song. I will be going back to sit and write. My main comment though is how did a 3 block (being generous) strip of street make it on an International list? Old Riga would fit in the area of Williamsburg, or the Mission District.
Yeah, that puzzled me too 😉 Glad you enjoyed it though! And put a few more quid in Dad’s pocket! Did you have the PIE??
Hey! I just spent almost the whole evening reading your blog, thinking it all over and over again. The only thing I cannot understand – if you dispise Latvia and Latvians so much, why are you still here? There is nothing more pathetic than people continiously complaining about their circumstances and not doing anything to change them. I don’t like Ireland for instance, that’ s why I don’t live there.
Oh, and don’t you bother to correct or comment on my English, it may not be perfect but than neither is your Latvian (do you really feel the need to give all these wrong Latvian examples?).
Good luck with your blog and let God grant you the strenght to move out of this miserable country full of Jānis, the homophobes 🙂
Luckily, I don’t need God to buy a plane ticket. Visa works for that.
If you want to see all Riga hipsters in one place, go to Innocent Cafe on Blaumaņa street. Plus, rainy sunday was probably not a good choice anyway, but you already know that 😉 try Miera Ielas svētki, as suggested in the comments below, you might get an entirely different perspective. It’s still no Kreuzberg, tho.
Yeah, there are some nice places on Blaumaņa alright – some have even started doing brunch!
Yeah, i’ve visited them all by now (i’m looking for a place that will outdo Neiburgs. so far nothing). Btw, i will be in Riga from April 28th to May 4th; we wanted to cach up in November but it didn’t work out (if you remember; if not, that’s ok) – let me know if you have time 🙂
Yep! I should be here and I’m sure I can find the time to meet up! Just drop me a line when you get here and we’ll try to organise something 🙂 Is Neiburgs really good?
Quite a few nice areas on the list. How “hipster” they are, well, not a clue. But e.g. Söder in Stockholm has a great feel to it.
Yep, I agree with you there!
I blame the fact that you did it on sunday, try a working day afternoon, like monday around 4 PM or at lunch time, and you will see a lot of hipsters for sure. Most of them probably will be students from RDMV.
Yeah, I said that Sunday probably wasn’t the best day! It’s when I have free time though 😉 I used to live practically next door to that school – memories 😉
I’m a student there myself. ;D
I might have seen you round 😉
Ok, I didn’t know only hookers wear lingerie and tights in Ireland. the shop ir obviously freaky, sure. But latvian hipsters don t mind weird things.
I wear tights here 9 months of the year – I hate them 😉
Poor tights. Now they are hookers’ clothing. because you hate them. Not to mention lingerie…
It’s no wonder that you didn’t spot any hipsters in the wild. Hipsters NEVER admit that they are hipsters. 😉
From what I can gather, they do things ‘ironically’: They wear old school big ass glasses with plain glass; they drink crap beer; they wear wool scarves in the summer; they wear a lot of lumberjack plaid; have Grizzly Adams beards. You get the point. At least that’s what I’ve seem near where I live. My town is just outside of New Haven, Connecticut, where Yale University is located. It’s Hipster Central down there!
How come you weren’t on the list! You wuz robbed! 😉
I see enough of them in the wild, thank you very much! 😉
i’ve never understood meaning of the word “hipster”
i kind of hoped your post will help me
nekā…
ok, i’ll clasify it as the rest of things a lot of people talk about, but almost nobody actually has a clue
I always thought I was the only one who didn’t really get it – at least this post has shown that there are quite a few of us out there 😉
I think there is a lot of things out there people just think they understand but they really don’t. Seem that for most it is soooo embarrassing to tell he/she doesn’t know or understand. So the last resort for some is pretending…
Yeah, it’s not cool to ask questions 😉 And when everyone assumes that everyone else knows, in reality, probably nobody does 😉
Many feel that “hipster” is entirely synonymous with “pretentious wanker”. I’m pretty sure, for example, being a hipster entails pretending – like a wanker – that some of those buildings are intriguing and edgy. I actually like some of those run down buildings. I’m probably a hipster. So is the woman on the right in that last people-shot, I’m sure. Or maybe I don’t know.
Yeah, I can’t claim to know any better than you 😉 I just take pictures of whatever I come across – some people don’t like that 😉
Bad people. Tasteless people. Or tasty people. Tasty people who have specialised themselves into a corner we don’t want to inhabit, especially since we don’t eat people.
No, we have cake. 😉
Good.
I’m assuming you don’t eat people?
Who cares about an Irish whore’s opinion?
Now now, play nice – you kiss Mummy Janis with that mouth?
And in answer to your delightful question, I’d say you and the other 192,000+ people who’ve visited the blog since I started writing it. That good enough for you?
Yours sincerely,
The Irish Whore.
I’ve given up on anything that is vaguely cool or hipsterish, just can’t be bothered. Tea and books, on the other hand, are my idea of heaven so definitely want to hear about that if you ever manage to get in 😉
There’s a summer festival coming up at the end of May so I’ll head back that direction then and check it out! 🙂
Count me in 🙂
That was really good read 😀 I almost lost my balance from laughing at “Still a little unsure as to how a hipster differs from a pretentious wanker”
When I finished reading I was hearing in head like final phrases from show “Myth Busters”.
Ha ha ha! Glad you liked it! 🙂
same sentence 🙂 will follow me today 🙂 great read – and so true – Miera is just a street – for me – a street I had to walk/take tram/ for 11 years to get to my lyceum on Mēness street 🙂 those nice memories (of one of the calmest streets in Riga and yeah the smell of chocolat from Laima) will never, I hope, be taken away by “pretentious wankers” claiming this to be some sort of top in the world (or whatever)..
Yeah, these kinds of lists usually ruin a place! There’s a great restaurant down that end as well – opened a couple of years ago, called International. Well worth checking out!
For those who have never visited Riga, you can walk down Miera iela using Google Streetview.. and on my version of Google it was a sunny day 🙂
Yeah, but did you see a guy in an oil drum with a chainsaw? I doubt it… 😉
Guy in an oil drum had a blast with that chainsaw 😀 swinging around and stuff. That should go in worlds “how not to do things” safety book.
Or ‘World’s Most Extreme Tree-cutters’ 🙂
You’re right but If you start from Brivibas, there is a man on a crane lift attempting to electrocute himself on the overhead tram wires whilst painting his drainpipe wearing some interesting shorts 🙂 A bit farther along, another man & crane about to lift some very rusty boxes of rubble! ( and wearing a hippie shirt and hat)
Now that sounds like my kind of entertainment 😉
He’s wearing a high visibility jacket, so it’s all safe. 🙂
🙂 Yeah, but is it chainsaw-proof?
As long as you have your high visibility jacket on, nothing can harm you, so yeah. 😉
Ah, OK, I wasn’t aware of that 😉
There might not be any trees in the next Google Maps update.
Ha ha ha! And some blood stains on the street 😉
It is odd to call Miera iela the most hipster neighborhood in the world and visiting it on a dull Sunday will most definitely prove that statement wrong. But check out Miera ielas Vasarsvētki on May 23-24 this year to see what the fuss is all about!
OK, cool! I’ll keep an eye out 🙂
yes, Miera ielas Vasarsvētki is the key. I think most pictures on which the voting was based were from last year’s (or a year before) event. I live nearby, but personally I would say I prefer Kalnciema iela’s events.
I was at the market there once but need to go back for a concert or something. Pretty space. And I’ll be sure to check out Vasarsvētki!
€5 for a slice of cake?! Did that include the tea? Even at that it’s a bit steep. I know Riga is a capital and this is its most hip street, but even in Temple Bar, Ireland’s hipster heaven, you wouldn’t pay that much! The cake does look divine, though – think I’ll make a lemon meringue pie for Easter…
That was for the tea and cake but still a bit much 😉 And great, I guess that’s my Easter sorted! I’m sure LOTC will be popping over as well 😉
The more the merrier! Red or white?!
Both?
Comparing to France – reasonable price. Comparing to Iceland – very cheep. I guess we always want to pay less, but if the cake’s worth it… As for that last paragraph, all respect to the author but when you’ll get to know Latvians a bit better you’ll see that we would never say those things out loud about ourselves unless someone else gave the hint. (:
Online voting is the perfect solution I guess! And yes, the cake was worth it 😉
Sorry for swinging in the oil drum 😦
No, no, please don’t apologise! Do it everywhere! You made my day 😉
Tea and Books is a great place. You should give it another chance, but take someone with you. You can go inside the 2nd room and just chillout.
OK, cool! Thanks for the tip 🙂 It did look really nice – shame I couldn’t get in. Maybe they have very subtle ‘face control’ haha!
Hipster.
I have no idea what it is either.
I tend to call the norms hipsters. You know. That means the entire population of the world.
Actually I refer to mum as a hipster all the time. Especially when she lets me put her in my corsets.
And you know, anywhere that has a chocolate factory… in my books, is bloody hipster.
You should write a post on your mum in your corsets! She sounds like a fun woman! 🙂
Well.. of course you need to actually hang out with those hipsters in order to actually meet them. You have to actually go to those places at night to clubs and stuff if you want to see originally dressed people. An Austrian friend of mine who visited both Berlin and Russia, Ukraine, Poland etc said that young Latvians indeed somehow remind him of Berliners more than Russians or Poles and that women in Latvia are dressed less sexy and revealing than in slavic countires, more european (piercing weird haircuts and all that). Im sure he got to hang out with some really advanced students which gave him that impression. Never been to Latvia but judging by your blog it feels as if they are all dressed like… well … kinda super feminine mini skirts and all that. Not that many hipsters I guess
I would say that the super feminine look definitely outweighs the hipster look, though I have seen a few more shaved heads/crazy colours and piercings lately. It probably just depends on who you meet and where you hang out!
btw you mentioned in one of your previous posts that you know latvian americans who came back to live in Latvia. could one of them do a guest post on how to live there? what life is like?
I’ve tried to do this before – people claim they’re interested in doing it then lose interest. But I’ll keep an eye out!
I think maybe you’re just not hipster enough to know where the hipsters go. But how this beat out even Williamsburg is totally beyond me… I guess NY is just too mainstream now.
That could be the problem. A hipster would never have to look up ‘hipster’ in the OED 😉
I’m surprised all the comparisons are with Kreuzberg. Surely we should be talking about Hackney Wick or Dalston. Also, in Berlin, I thought Prenzlauerberg had replaced K’berg. I haven’t seen Miera Iela lately but I have a friend, who used to live there and I can’t see how it could have turned into hipsterland.
Maybe it is but I was just there on a bad day 😉 Are Hackney Wick and Dalston rocking?!
Too funny! Great tale once again.
I can picture some hipster in NY, negroni hand, bragging, “Yeah man, I used to hang out in Miera iela, you probably never heard of it.”
*in hand
Ha ha, love this comment! Yeah, I’m sure that’s happening as we speak! 🙂
The Latvian in the oil drum swinging a chainsaw made my life. That is all.
I love when that happens 😉
I don’t even want to know how that ended. My mind is loving spinning all the possible and horrific endings. 🙂
Yeah, I left him at it – my imagination is better than reality sometimes 😉
Yours and mine both, sista!
I’d never come up with the garlic feet thing though 😉
There was me hoping for aflared low slung trouser….
That’s what hipsters used to mean to me too 😉
Perhaps they still so in Latvia?
I didn’t see any of those kind of hipsters either 😉 You saw the local fashions!
All in the closet!
Now that sounds like Latvia… 😉
Yep! Thought so! I’ve learned a lot ; )
🙂
Nice that you caught The Miera Chainsaw Massacre in full swing! I was down there as part of my Brasa trip, before it got named number one and it’s okay, but ranks way behind a lot of the others on the list. You should go to Kreuzberg before it’s too late. I’ve been going there for nearly 15 years (yikes!) and like much of these places, the “hipness” is being ruined by its inclusion in hipness lists. The parts of it near the river are now being overrun by tourists and have Italian restaurants, pricey wine bars and sushi joints. That would have been unheard of ten years ago. My friend has lived there for years and is now thinking of moving out, as he said its coolness factor has taken a nosedive since the tourists arrived and the prices in local shops have been bumped up to cater for tourists.
To be honest, even in Riga, I find Agenskalns to be, in some ways, “hipper” than Miera.
I’ve only been through it on the bus but there were definite signs of life there! I was probably in Kreuzberg but I don’t remember the names of the districts I was in – loved Berlin though!
NYC and SF have nothing on Miera. You are in the Hipterest place EVER! But I think it will go down hill when you leave the country.
You coming to visit?!
I so wish. I would love to come up and buy you a beer for all the laughs you have given me! 🙂
Any time! 🙂
Maybe people who actually smile is the Latvian version of hipster?
Personally I didn’t find Kreuzberg particularly hipster, but then we were only there at night and some black dude tried to sell us drugs in the park!
At least there’s excitement 😉
The Berlin police came up with the bright idea of flushing all the drug dealers out of Gorlitzer park. All they succeeded in doing was pushing them beside the u-bahn station, where they are more visible, but can run away quicker. The end result has been a big rise in burglaries down there and shadier people visiting the district.
I find that a gloomy day never helps when exploring a new (part of) town. Maybe hipsters are exclusively good-weather-creatures…?
Luckily, you know the fix-all-remedy for mediocre experiences: CAKE. A woman after my own heart.
Yeah, drizzle doesn’t do much for people’s moods! Plenty of hip oldsters about though 😉 And the cake was good 😉
Good cake is worth enduring drizzle for.
As an aside, I’m still not 100% sure how to spot a hipster… skinny pants, stripey V-neck, stupid glasses, stupid hat…
Yeah, that was my yardstick as well 😉 I take it you love them then?
I’ve never actually spoken to one, so I’ve no opinion. A stupid outfit isn’t enough to make me hate anyone. Gimme a few more years, though….
Ha ha, get your big stick ready 😉
In my book, Miera street is so hipsterish, that I don’t dare to visit any of its cafes or shops except “Mierā” 🙂 They all are located closer to Brīvības str., so your effort to find any hipsters at the other end of street was kind of doomed (since “Mājas svētība” closed down). But you caught the moment with that man in tree, wasn’t it worth the trouble? 🙂
Definitely! He made my day! 🙂 I’ve heard that a lot of places that used to be there have moved closer to the centre, but I don’t normally hang around down there so I can’t really say for sure!
Was is 5 Euros for just the cake, or cake and tea? (Yikes, just looked at my handy-dandy conversion chart I’ve printed out in preparation for my upcoming Euro-trip, and that is $7! That is a pretty penny for cake and tea. Dear god, I hoped it included the tea. Otherwise I’ll go broke on my trip!) Glad you liked it, though! I’ve heard good things about Dad Cafe…and an actual smile – wow!!
In my experience Sundays are dull and quiet in very many European cities…
€5 for both – but still pricey enough for Riga! You’d get it for €3 or under in a lot of local cafés. I guess this place has been featured in a few articles etc., so they raised the prices.
I think Riga has an advantage over a lot of European cities in that things are actually OPEN on Sundays! It was kind of a miserable day in April though – I’ll visit again in summer!
Very true…Riga has more stores, etc open on Sundays than many other cities. Difficult to believe that in places like Germany shops are still closed on Sundays. You’ll have to get used to that when you move! 🙂
Yeah, the shops are closed but the cafés and bars are mostly open – at least where I’ve been so far! Sunday is a huge shopping day in Dublin so it’s hard to get used to!
Nothing is open on Sundays in Germany… get used to it! (Well, restaurants are… everyone who forgot to go shopping on Saturday can be found eating there).
That’s where I’ll be then 😉
Answering to your question – yes. If there is any survey going around internet involving Latvia, be sure that loads of Latvians will be informing each other and voting for… their own country!
I knew it 😉 What do you think of Miera?
There are a couple of great spots on Mira. My fave is Taka. Small cafe bar of course they feature the best latvian beer mulduguns.
They even have their own special variety that the owner of the caffe made at the brewery.
At the very end of Mira iela is a nice brewery located under the club piens, called Labities.
Of course all of my recommendations are beer focused.
Naturally 😉 Ale House is still my favourite though…
And Mulduguns? I’ve never heard of it!